Enhanced

XXII

Concurrently, the three on the top of the tower set aside the dead bodies down the stairs and to the ground floor as they let Aiden begin to get their transmission sent. Rubbing through all sorts of control panels across the circumference of the console line, bits of Vendetta's misfiring struck the bullet proofed glass that circled the entire room and allowed for a safe and protected stay within the tower. One very important thing slipped Aiden's mind as he continued to use the panels on the tower's reserve power. Their access to the systems were completely limited and he'd not realized it sooner. 

"I can't find it." Aiden voiced out to the both of them, Vaughn assisting him with the basic knowledge he had learnt from him while Clea made a clear path for the rest at the bottom before joining the others atop her, "Do you see anything?" He asked in a state of panic, jumbling about the room and checking underneath the consoles.

"It's just blanked out." Vaughn replied to him, turning his eyes back to him as he set his helmet down on the chair to his side, "Wait.." The Carrier became aware of why it had been so, "We need too override the power lines separation." He said unnervingly as Aiden, too, realized what had went wrong. 

The other Carrier looked out of the glass and down to the rest at the bottom. His palms tensed up again as his thoughts began to rattle about with greatened frustration within him. They weren't going to make it. "There's not enough time." He said, shaking the thought off and shanking the knife into the exposed portion of the console, beginning to reroute the power from the generator, the same power that he robbed the tower of.

Aiden continued to hastily search through any of the online systems that he could use to quicken the process. Assuming that the technicians had cut off at least five minute off of their time to fix everything, there was another solid ten minutes at the least that was left to correct. But it still wasn't going to be fast enough. His options came to mind but none of them were of immunity for them. Either one of them returned back to the bunker to manually route the power back to fruition or they risk the next ten minutes. Even if at the end of that ten minutes that he was able to fix the power and send the transmission, they would've been cornered by Vendetta and eventually will be killed before anybody arrives on the scene.

There was only one way for them to protect their objective and that was to get out into the field, back to the bunker with all of their forces following them. It was suicide. Not all of them could leave and not all of them were going to stay. The lesser of their comrades with them in the tower, the worse. The lesser of their allies charging with them to reconceive the electricity.. Either way was going to lead to death and Aiden had to choose. Too many people have died because he chose to want to know what they were. Too many people died because he chose.. And the Ninth died because he failed to choose how to contact them. 

He couldn't run away from the consequence of choice by not deciding. There were no good, or bad choices. There were choices that lead people to die and there were choices that didn't. They intertwined with every moment and brewed in sporadically whenever the world chose so. So, he chose, even when his soul told him not to.

Moments after his his breaths weakened and his body failed, the crash of the door opening below sounded through the stairs and to the top. Heavy and hardened footsteps rose higher as the sound of oncoming gunfire continued to blare on, Aiden turned his body to the stairs and spoke out with trepidation, "Someone needs to return to the bunker to return power to tower manually!" He exclaimed downstairs as the first head entered into the room.

Miles stood at the door's side with Cody as Cassidy entered the tower lastly. Removing their helmets after they shut the door tightly before peeking out the window, they glanced at the nearing troops. Then they heard Aiden's call and they stayed in their position with Cassidy pausing and remaining aside them as the rest continued up, making their stay. The pair looked to one another and the Strider immediately made his responding compliance. Both of them had the same thing in mind but only one of them was going to commit towards it.